Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli continued to sound like a man intent on retaining the services of restricted free agent winger Phil Kessel today during a conference call to speak about the re-signing of defenseman MattHunwick.

“I like where we are (roster-wise) because for the most part, we have our team in place. Cap-wise, we’re getting up there. But certainly Phil’s a player that if there comes a point we have to make a move to get him in the mix, I will certainly do that,” he said.

Chiarelli also revealed that defensive prospect Yuri Alexandrov is intent on coming to North America and would probably do so next season after his KHL contract is up. Chiarelli also talked about the recent signing of journeyman goaltender Dany Sabourin.

“We’re not handing the baton to Tuukka (Rask), so there’ll be a battle there,” he said.

I think this all comes down to the fact that Kessel won’t be playing the first few weeks (or months?) of the season. Chia is probably waiting to see how much time he will miss to see how much relief he can get from injury exemptions and apply that to his calculations. If he is on LTIR that for a while that would definitely help the situation in the short term and let him see how the beginning of the season shakes out before making any trades.